Investigating the Evolution of the Relationship between the Government and Ethnic Groups in Iran; From Conflict to Cooperation (1979- 2018)

The purpose of this article is to investigate the contribution of forms of conflict, competition and cooperation in the relationship between the government and ethnic groups during the Islamic Republic and the evolution of the relationship between the government and ethnic groups between 1979 and 2018. The main question of the research is related to the understanding of the developments in the relations between the government and the ethnic groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the years 1979 to 2018. It seems that in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, there was a mixture of forms of conflict, competition and cooperation in the relationship between the government and the ethnic groups. But gradually, in the following decades and until 2018, under the influence of the political opportunity structure in the political system, the pattern of competition and cooperation was strengthened. In traditional Iran, under the construction of the scattered and non-ideological power of Mulūk Al-Ṭawā'ifi, the relationship between the state and ethnicities was more based on cooperation, and in the Pahlavi period, under the construction of centralized and ideological power of the modern absolute state, the relationship between the state and ethnicities was more based on conflict. But in the period of the Islamic Republic, with the transition from the unstable power of the early years to the construction of power based on the constitution and the establishment of security stability and development approaches and the discussion of justice and public participation, the relationship between the government and ethnic groups has evolved into a spectrum of conflict, competition and cooperation. In this article, using the theory of political opportunity structure and the analysis of identity politics resulting from the construction of government power, more diverse aspects of the relationship between the government and ethnic groups in Iran between 1979 and 2018 have been discussed. The research method is qualitative and explanatory, historical.